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  <div class="section" id="module-commands">
<span id="commands-utilities-for-running-commands"></span><h1>35.16. <a class="reference internal" href="#module-commands" title="commands: Utility functions for running external commands. (deprecated) (Unix)"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">commands</span></tt></a> &#8212; Utilities for running commands<a class="headerlink" href="#module-commands" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<p><em>Platforms: </em>Unix</p>
<p class="deprecated">
<span class="versionmodified">Deprecated since version 2.6: </span>The <a class="reference internal" href="#module-commands" title="commands: Utility functions for running external commands. (deprecated) (Unix)"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">commands</span></tt></a> module has been removed in Python 3.  Use the
<a class="reference internal" href="subprocess.html#module-subprocess" title="subprocess: Subprocess management."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">subprocess</span></tt></a> module instead.</p>
<p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#module-commands" title="commands: Utility functions for running external commands. (deprecated) (Unix)"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">commands</span></tt></a> module contains wrapper functions for <a class="reference internal" href="os.html#os.popen" title="os.popen"><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">os.popen()</span></tt></a> which
take a system command as a string and return any output generated by the command
and, optionally, the exit status.</p>
<p>The <a class="reference internal" href="subprocess.html#module-subprocess" title="subprocess: Subprocess management."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">subprocess</span></tt></a> module provides more powerful facilities for spawning new
processes and retrieving their results.  Using the <a class="reference internal" href="subprocess.html#module-subprocess" title="subprocess: Subprocess management."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">subprocess</span></tt></a> module is
preferable to using the <a class="reference internal" href="#module-commands" title="commands: Utility functions for running external commands. (deprecated) (Unix)"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">commands</span></tt></a> module.</p>
<div class="admonition note">
<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
<p class="last">In Python 3.x, <a class="reference internal" href="#commands.getstatus" title="commands.getstatus"><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">getstatus()</span></tt></a> and two undocumented functions
(<tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">mk2arg()</span></tt> and <tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">mkarg()</span></tt>) have been removed.  Also,
<a class="reference internal" href="#commands.getstatusoutput" title="commands.getstatusoutput"><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">getstatusoutput()</span></tt></a> and <a class="reference internal" href="#commands.getoutput" title="commands.getoutput"><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">getoutput()</span></tt></a> have been moved to the
<a class="reference internal" href="subprocess.html#module-subprocess" title="subprocess: Subprocess management."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">subprocess</span></tt></a> module.</p>
</div>
<p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#module-commands" title="commands: Utility functions for running external commands. (deprecated) (Unix)"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">commands</span></tt></a> module defines the following functions:</p>
<dl class="function">
<dt id="commands.getstatusoutput">
<tt class="descclassname">commands.</tt><tt class="descname">getstatusoutput</tt><big>(</big><em>cmd</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#commands.getstatusoutput" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Execute the string <em>cmd</em> in a shell with <a class="reference internal" href="os.html#os.popen" title="os.popen"><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">os.popen()</span></tt></a> and return a 2-tuple
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">(status,</span> <span class="pre">output)</span></tt>.  <em>cmd</em> is actually run as <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">{</span> <span class="pre">cmd</span> <span class="pre">;</span> <span class="pre">}</span> <span class="pre">2&gt;&amp;1</span></tt>, so that the
returned output will contain output or error messages. A trailing newline is
stripped from the output. The exit status for the command can be interpreted
according to the rules for the C function <tt class="xref c c-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">wait()</span></tt>.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="function">
<dt id="commands.getoutput">
<tt class="descclassname">commands.</tt><tt class="descname">getoutput</tt><big>(</big><em>cmd</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#commands.getoutput" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Like <a class="reference internal" href="#commands.getstatusoutput" title="commands.getstatusoutput"><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">getstatusoutput()</span></tt></a>, except the exit status is ignored and the return
value is a string containing the command&#8217;s output.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="function">
<dt id="commands.getstatus">
<tt class="descclassname">commands.</tt><tt class="descname">getstatus</tt><big>(</big><em>file</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#commands.getstatus" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return the output of <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">ls</span> <span class="pre">-ld</span> <span class="pre">file</span></tt> as a string.  This function uses the
<a class="reference internal" href="#commands.getoutput" title="commands.getoutput"><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">getoutput()</span></tt></a> function, and properly escapes backslashes and dollar signs in
the argument.</p>
<p class="deprecated">
<span class="versionmodified">Deprecated since version 2.6: </span>This function is nonobvious and useless.  The name is also misleading in the
presence of <a class="reference internal" href="#commands.getstatusoutput" title="commands.getstatusoutput"><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">getstatusoutput()</span></tt></a>.</p>
</dd></dl>

<p>Example:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">commands</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">commands</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">getstatusoutput</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;ls /bin/ls&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go">(0, &#39;/bin/ls&#39;)</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">commands</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">getstatusoutput</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;cat /bin/junk&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go">(256, &#39;cat: /bin/junk: No such file or directory&#39;)</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">commands</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">getstatusoutput</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;/bin/junk&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go">(256, &#39;sh: /bin/junk: not found&#39;)</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">commands</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">getoutput</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;ls /bin/ls&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go">&#39;/bin/ls&#39;</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">commands</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">getstatus</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;/bin/ls&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go">&#39;-rwxr-xr-x  1 root        13352 Oct 14  1994 /bin/ls&#39;</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<div class="admonition-see-also admonition seealso">
<p class="first admonition-title">See also</p>
<dl class="last docutils">
<dt>Module <a class="reference internal" href="subprocess.html#module-subprocess" title="subprocess: Subprocess management."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">subprocess</span></tt></a></dt>
<dd>Module for spawning and managing subprocesses.</dd>
</dl>
</div>
</div>


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